Raleigh
The Love Hangover
The Pour HouseBack for its 11th year, The Love Hangover tackles that four-letter word from all angles with male-female duos teaming up (often for the first and only time) on covers and originals fitting for those on both the fuzzy and fed-up sides of the feeling. This year's performers include Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas, whose appearance together at last year's Hangover spurred the creation of The Small Ponds, a band that gives new life to tunes that don't fit their chief projects, Cary's Tres Chicas and Douglas' Proclivities.
Regina Hexaphone's Sara Bella veteran of four other Hangovers, including the firstpairs up with 2010 newbie Phil Cook of Megafaun. Cook was half of "The Longest Day," last year's beautiful duet on his band's Gather, Form & Fly. I Was Totally Destroying It vocalists Rachel Hirsh and John Booker, no strangers to both sides of love as a pair, unite again, while Philly songstress Alexandra Day couples up with The Tourist leading man Hunter MacDermut and Karen Kletter plays with Aly Khalifa. The show starts at 8 p.m., and the $7 cover is cheaper (and has fewer calories, depending on which spirit you're downing) than a box of chocolates. Check www.the-pour-house.com. Spencer Griffith
Chapel Hill
Writers for Readers
Carolina InnThe nonprofit Orange County Literacy Council (OCLC) hosts its annual book-and-author benefit at Chapel Hill's historic Carolina Inn. Proceeds from the luncheon (tickets are $50) benefit the organization's free one-on-one tutoring in math, reading, writing and English for speakers of other languages, with the goal of achieving 100 percent adult literacy in Orange County.
This year's luncheon offers a not-to-be-missed mix of established and upstart writers: Dorothy Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina), Charlaine Harris (the vampiric Dead and Gone), George Singleton (Why Dogs Chase Cars), Lee Stringer (Grand Central Winter) and the newly acclaimed short story writer Wells Tower (Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned).
A reception for the authors the evening before, on Sunday, Feb. 14, 5-7 p.m. at the UNC President's House (400 E. Franklin St.), allows readers and writers to mingle as they nibble food prepared by local chefs and cookbook authors Jean Anderson, Sara Foster, Moreton Neal, Nancie McDermott, John and Dale Reed and Bill Smith.
This Valentine's Day, do something for the community and give your significant other a gift that will last long after the chocolates have been devoured. Visit www.orangeliteracy.org. Rebekah L. Cowell
